Happy long weekend everyone! Here we are in September with the kids back in school and the weather a changing. If you’ve been on the fence about menu planning NOW is a great time to start. When change is already in the air why not add one more and give menu planning a try. It’s a new month and a new season, a perfect time for a brand new start. I promise it doesn’t take long at all but the amount of time saved is tremendous (not to mention all the other benefits of menu planning!). I’m sure all these ladies participating here today will agreed with me or they wouldn’t continue to do it week after week :) Give it a try and let me know how it goes!

I’ve even got some fun resources for you that might help. The first is a really cute menu planner from Mine for the Making. Click on the link to print yourself a copy.

Next is an awesome idea for creating a menu planner right on your fridge from Sassy Sites:

Is that fantastic or what? And guess what she also sells them as well for $35.00. Check out her post here for information. I’m not affiliated with this gal in any way, just thought her idea was clever and wanted to share with you.

Now I’d like YOUR help. I want to branch out a little more and find me some new food blogs to follow for recipes and inspiration. I already follow about 40 in my Google Reader (many of which you see me link to here week after week) but I’d love to follow more that share recipes similar to the recipe criteria I go by. Would you be so kind as to add the link(s) to your favorite food blogs in the comments for me. That would be awesome and helpful, thanks!!

I really need to get back to menu planning… I’ve been trying for like a week now to figure out a menu for this week. I go back to work on Thursday, and in addition to that, I have a student coming to stay here, so I definitely need to work on the menu!!! It used to be easier, but now I struggle with it! Maybe I’ll do a post about it today.

thanks! i forgot to answer your question about cooking blogs. some of my favorites are listed on the sidebar of my own kitchen blog (which I really need to start posting more! ) http://inthekitchenwaaoms.blogspot.com

The Citrus-Chicken Salad Pita Pockets look really good and I bookmarked it to try too. Some of my favorite recipe sites are, The Girl Who Ate Everything and Southern Plate. Thanks for hosting Laura and have a great week!

Hi Laura! I love that menu planner on the side of the fridge- and the kitchen, too. :-) I think you probably follow the food blogs I do, too – Finding Joy In My Kitchen, Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures, and Hoosier Homemade. Be interesting to see what else people recommend! Needing to make gluten free, have you heard of Gluten Free Girl? Amazing recipes….

Ooooh I love that menu planner on the fridge. Not to toot my own horn, but I have a recipe section on my blog. Some are more labor intensive than others, but they are all made with whole foods. :-) AND they are all gluten free (not dairy free, though).

I don’t know if my computer is just being weird or what. I have always used Firefox to view MPM, and I’ve never had any trouble until last week (mind you, I am not saying that Firefox is the problem just throwing it out there). When I am on your homepage and I hover over ‘Menu Planning’ and then click on ‘Menu Plan Monday’ the last entry I see if for 8/22. Then I have to search the site to find the current MPM.

Thanks for your quick response. I love your site!!!! Hopefully, it will start coopering with me again soon.

Okay this is strange…I just tried the same thing and I see all of them there including todays. Although I will say I am having problems with Firefox lately myself not showing most recent comments and I have to keep refreshing before they show up. Maybe try that a few times. So frustrating isn’t it. Sorry!

The first week I tried to post my menu (3 or 4 weeks ago) I had the same problem, and couldn’t find the current MPM until I did a hard reload (held control and refreshed the page). It hasn’t been a problem since, though. I use Chrome.

My new favorite is foodgawker. I just found it about a week ago, and it’s awesome! The pictures are wonderful, and you can search based on ingredients. The pictures link directly to the recipes, so you might even uncover some more food blogs you’ll like! I have an account, and I’m in the process of setting up a foodgawker page. You’ll love it.

Thanks for hosting! I just started adding our weekly menu to my blog, and I’m excited to share that with other meal-planning party people! :) I can’t wait to look through these and see what everyone is cooking, and hopefully make some new bloggy friends! Thanks!

I’m starting menu planning again with back to school. I sat down with a blank monthly calendar for September and planned out all the week days. If I need to switch around at the last minute I can, but the thinking is finished.

One of my favorite sites for recipes is Good Cheap Eats by Life as Mom. She’s a mom of 6 so her recipes are never complicated. Just for pure reading pleasure, I love reading Smitten Kitten. Her style reminds me a little of M.K. Fisher.

Hi Laura, Hope you are having a great long weekend! My food blog meets all your criteria for sure. I also talk a lot about meal stretching ideas, making creative new meals from leftovers, etc. Hope you will join me at Seaside Simplicity – http://seasidesimplicity.blogspot.com/ As always thanks for hosting!

Thx for hosting Laura! I LOVE that menu planner on the side of the fridge! Im always fumbling through my notebook or on my blog to find what the heck I planned for that night! I actually like my own blog for food recipes, I do A LOT of research with recipes before I use them, and they are tried in my kitchen before I post them. I am The Frugalette, so simple and easy ingredients. Happy Monday! all my menu planning recipes:http://www.thefrugalette.com/tag/menu-plan/

Another Good Cheap Eats fan here, I also love Eat at Home. A Well Seasoned Life is another blog I like http://www.wellseasonedlife.com/ I have to mention Pocket Change Gourmet is quickly becoming a go to resource for me.

This is perfect for me! I am always looking for new blogs and recipes to cook for my family….we do love our tried and trues, but mixing it up every once in awhile is awesome.

My menu for this week includes three leftover days (I haven’t decided which days yet) and then Coconut chicken with rice Chicken noodle soup asparagus and goat cheese frittata Pasta w/ panchetta and leeks

Hi :) I try to post all the fun and easy recipes that I find on my blog Vegetarian Mamma. http://vegetarianmamma.blogspot.com If you click on the recipes tab at the top it will link you up to all the recipe labels. There are a “few” in-depth recipes but most are easy for this busy mama :) Cindy

My recipe site meets most of your criteria if you’d like to take a peek, no pictures yet, sorry! It’s a work in progress that I abandoned & am ready to get back to.http://recipesfromthehovel.blogspot.com I also have a few food blogs listed to the right of my page that you can check out.

I recently write about my 10 best food blogs and recipe sites to help my readers with meal planning. I think you will find at least 1 new gem in there. http://www.homelifesimplified.com.au/ten-best-food-blogs-recipe-sites/ Most of my 10 will meet your requirements that you list and if you want great food that is uncomplicated i seriously recommend you check out the link to donna hay’s recipes and for your healthy requirement check out Skinny taste if you don’t already follow Gina – her recipes taste fattening and yummy, but are healthy and she gives weight watcher’s info for people following that!

I am loving the side of the fridge menu plan thingy you linked to. Too cute! Hmmm… So, I have a black sided fridge. Do you think I can convince my hubby I need a white one so I can do this? LOL!

I have to check out the citrus chicken salad. Sounds yummy!

Most of the food blogs I follow are gf, but I also like OnceaMonthMom.com (I am writing her GF and dairy free menus now) if you are into freezer cooking, but recipes are posted almost everyday that you don’t have to do freezer cooking with (with a photo). I love crockpot365.blogspot.com also. All slow cooker, all GF and yummy. And Stephanie O’Dea is very sweet! :) Hope that helps with a couple of ideas.

Thanks for hosting the Menu Plan Monday. I don’t make my menu until the day before I go grocery shopping, usually late in the week. I was making my menu today and was really uninspired. So I found your site and was glad to look through the first 30-some linked sites and was able to come up with a menu. I thank all your members for their participation, because it made it easier for me today. I was also amazed to see how many people have spaghetti on their menu this week, as well as pizza. ;)

Laura – I have been following you for quite awhile, but don’t post much (if ever). Anyhow, the citrus chicken salad looks great! But just wondering, with a dairy-free, egg-free son, what do you use as a mayonnaise substitute? My son is allergic to peanuts and eggs, and I am trying to limit my dairy… or even an egg-free version since the dairy in mayo (for me) would be minimal (as it is not a true allergy, and I do OK with a little bit).

Also curious what you do for gluten-free? Does he just eat it differently? Or do you have an alternate gluten-free bread that he can have?

Hi on the nights we are having something that is not safe for my son he’ll simply do his own thing. He has many food aversions due to his allergies and is quite happy to eat the same things over and over again. We are working on this but it sure is a slow process. Sorry I couldn’t be more help.

You can look for vegan mayo in the grocery store. Vegan mayo has no eggs or dairy. You can also make it at home. If you google vegan mayo, there are a ton of recipes out there. Here is one I found: http://dairyfreecooking.about.com/od/condimentschutneys/r/veganmayonnaise.htm. I’m not sure where you are from but all the grocery stores in CT now have gluten free sections. If your store doesn’t carry gluten free items, request that they carry them. If enough people request a product, the store will start to carry it.

I have to plug my own blog, A Little Nosh (http://www.alittlenosh.net). Most of my recipes are WW-friendly, and super easy to make since I also work a full-time job and have a 3-year-old mouth to feed every night.

I absolutely adore weekofmenus (http://weekofmenus.blogspot.com/). I am a novice cook and her recipes are easy to follow with step by step photos. I sometimes can’t believe I’ve whipped up some delicious dinners!

Thanks SOOOO much for featuring my dinner menu!! I know I’m a little slow at getting you the thanks, but I really do appreciate it! As a thank you, I would LOVE to send you a dinner menu for FREE!! Email me at [email protected] and let me know what color and size you would like. XOXO!!!

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